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Suvendu Adhikari, once seen as Mamata Banerjee’s most trusted lieutenant inside the TMC, is now leading Bengal as the BJP’s first chief minister in the state.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari took oath as the Chief Minister of West Bengal. file photo
for years, Suvendu Adhikari He was seen as one of the most influential leaders inside Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) and at one point was even seen as her political successor. On Saturday, the man who once helped Banerjee rise to power in West Bengal took oath as the state’s chief minister Gave a historic victory to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) This ended TMC’s 15-year rule.
BJP created history 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections Winning 206 out of 294 seats in the state, reducing TMC to 80. But beyond the scale of the BJP’s victory, one result stood out politically: Adhikari defeated Mamata Banerjee in Bhawanipur, a constituency long considered her political stronghold.
The margin was decisive – more than 15,000 votes – and it was the second consecutive assembly election in which Adhikari personally defeated Banerjee. In 2021, he had defeated him by a narrow margin in Nandigram, even though the BJP had lost the state election overall. Five years later, he not only repeated that feat, but also led the BJP to power in Bengal for the first time.
The victory transformed Adhikari from Mamata Banerjee’s trusted organizer to the BJP’s most powerful face in Bengal politics.
How did Suvendu Adhikari emerge within TMC?
Adhikari comes from one of the most influential political families of the East Medinipur region of Bengal. His father, Sisir Adhikari, was a veteran Congress leader and later a Union minister during the tenure of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. His brothers Dibyendu and Soumendu are also active in politics.
Kanthi’s Adhikari family has long had political and social influence in the region and is also linked to the legacy of Bengal’s independence movement. Family members Bipin Adhikari and Kenaram Adhikari were known for their nationalist activities during the British rule and were associated with many prominent freedom fighters of that time. According to accounts related to the family’s political legacy, Bipin Adhikari was imprisoned by the British, while the family home was reportedly burned down twice during the independence struggle.
Suvendu started his political journey through student politics during the Left Front era before joining the Congress in the mid-1990s. Around 2000, soon after the party was founded by Mamata Banerjee, he and his father switched to TMC.
At the time, the TMC was still attempting to establish itself against the organizational dominance of the CPI(M)-led Left Front. The Adhikari family’s influence in Contai and across Purba Medinipur helped TMC strengthen its grassroots presence in the area.
Adhikari entered the West Bengal Assembly in 2006 by winning from Kanthi South. But his real political rise came during the anti-land acquisition movements in Singur and Nandigram, which fundamentally changed the politics of Bengal.
Nandigram movement which changed the politics of Bengal
in 2007, Nandigram It became the center of protests against land acquisition by the then Left Front government. As clashes intensified between the protesters and CPI(M) cadres, Adhikari emerged as one of the key organizers of the resistance movement on the ground.
Many political observers later saw the Nandigram movement as a turning point that weakened the Left Front’s decades-long hold on Bengal politics and paved the way for the TMC to come to power in 2011.
After the movement, Adhikari’s stature within TMC also increased rapidly. He became known not only as an electoral leader but also as an organizer capable of organizing cadre networks in the districts.
His influence gradually spread beyond Purba Medinipur to the Jangalmahal belt – including Bankura, Purulia and West Medinipur – as well as parts of Malda and Murshidabad, where the TMC relied on him organisationally.
In 2009, Adhikari defeated CPI(M) leader Laxman Seth from the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat and retained it in 2014. When TMC returned to power in 2016, Mamata Banerjee included him in her cabinet. He served as the Minister of Transport and was later given additional responsibilities.
By then, Adhikari was seen as one of the most powerful leaders of the party after Mamata Banerjee.
Controversy with Mamta Banerjee
Relations between Adhikari and the TMC leadership deteriorated over time, especially after the rise of Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee within the party organisation.
Political observers and party insiders have long seen Adhikari as Mamata Banerjee’s de facto number two. But tensions reportedly increased after Abhishek Banerjee emerged as TMC’s number two leader and increased his influence within the party structure.
In December 2020, in one of the biggest political shocks in Bengal politics, Adhikari resigned from the Mamata Banerjee cabinet and left TMC. A few days later, he joined the BJP in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The partition triggered an intense political battle between former colleagues. During the rallies, Adhikari also raised slogans of “Tolabaaz Bhaipo Hatao” (drive out the extortionist nephew) targeting Abhishek Banerjee, while Mamata Banerjee accused the Adhikari family of betrayal and called them “Mir Jaffers” (traitors).
The political rivalry soon culminated in one of Bengal’s most high-profile electoral contests.
Defeated Mamata Banerjee twice
The 2021 assembly elections turned Nandigram into the center of national political attention after Mamata Banerjee decided to contest directly against Adhikari in her stronghold.
Adhikari won the seat by a slim margin of 1,956 votes, giving Mamata Banerjee the biggest political shock of her career. However, despite the symbolic victory, the BJP failed to oust the TMC government that year and won 77 seats overall.
That period proved crucial in shaping Adhikari’s position within the BJP.
Following the 2021 elections, the BJP organization came under pressure in several parts of Bengal amid allegations of post-poll violence targeting party workers. While there was speculation that Adhikari might eventually return to TMC, Instead he remained with BJP and traveled extensively across the districts to support party workers and rebuild the organisation.
Many BJP leaders later credited him with helping stabilize and expand the party’s grassroots network in the years following the 2021 defeat. That organizational groundwork appeared to be coming to fruition in 2026.
This time, Adhikari defeated Mamata Banerjee again – now from Bhawanipur, one of TMC’s strongest seats – while also leading the BJP’s first government in Bengal.
Addressing the media after the victory, Adhikari said, “It was very important. It was important to defeat Mamata Banerjee. This is Mamata Banerjee’s retirement from politics… This time too she lost by more than 15,000 votes.”
He also described this result as a “victory for Hindutva”.
From opposition leader to Bengal CM
Following the BJP’s defeat in 2021, Adhikari was appointed leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, effectively becoming the key face of the party in the state.
Over the next five years, he rapidly emerged as the BJP’s most visible Bengal leader, especially at a time when the party was attempting to expand beyond its traditional urban and border-zone constituencies.
Inside the BJP, many leaders started comparing his organizational role in Bengal with the role played by Himanta Biswa Sarma in the BJP expansion into Assam.
By the time the 2026 election campaign reached its final stages, Adhikari had already become central to the BJP’s Bengal strategy. His double victory over Mamata Banerjee – first in Nandigram and then in Bhawanipur – further strengthened his stature within the party.
Now, with the BJP ending TMC’s 15-year rule and forming its first government in Bengal, Adhikari’s long political journey – from Congress worker to TMC organizer and Bengal face of the BJP – has ended in the state’s top political office.
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